Friday, September 23, 2011

Yeah for the first day of Fall!!!! It's my favorite time of year﻿! To celebrate I put together a little Boo package to give to a co-worker to kick of the annual giving of a little Boo gift around the office (works great in neighborhoods too!)

This project was very simple to create! I used Lliella's Designs Halloween Doodles digital kit to create the card on the top of the box and the "I've been Booed" sheet inside. Using Photoshop Elements I created the outside and inside card panels which were affixed to a orange cardstock card on the top. I create the "I've been Booed" sheet on the same print sheet (also in Elements) so I only needed to print one time. Here's what my print sheet looked like:

After printing I trimmed, mounted and was ready to fill my recycled product box. Inside the box I tucked a bag of the Brach's Autumn mix (a classic Fall treat in my book) and some homemade ginger cookies tied with white sheer ribbon. To tie the box closed I cut two slits in the front of the box and slid the ribbon through the holes and tied. The black ribbon and button were hot glued on.

Here's some more pics of this fun project. I hope you will give it a try!!!

Monday, August 01, 2011

This is my daughter Hannah. She is my baby, little sporty girl, THE ultimate daddy's girl and she's turning 9 in a few weeks. (I can't believe it!) After spending months talking about what kind of birthday party she wanted to have this year, she finally settled on having her first sleep over party at our house. She chose a camping theme and we agreed on only inviting 3 friends to keep things civil. (I've learned from experience that with sleep overs less is more!)

Now it's my turn to think of ways to use the camping theme to turn this into a really fun party for my special girl, her friends and my two assistants (my older daughter Katie and Katie's BFF Nikki). Hannah hired Katie and Nikki to be her personal party assistants. They are in charge of treating Hannah and her friends like gold while providing lots of fun and entertainment - certainly seems like a good deal to me. $15 for two party entertainers for a whole night....wow!

I've been scouring the Internet for ideas for the party and while I did come across some pre-made invites that were kinda cute I can't pass up the opportunity to make her invites. I can't remember the last birthday party we had where I didn't make the invites. It's a tradition! I'm now looking for party supplies, games, activities and more activities so that the girls will stay entertained throughout the night. Check back in over the next few weeks more details on the party - for now...enjoy these cute little invites I came up with. Who wouldn't want to come to party with a fun invite like this?

1. I opened Photoshop Elements and created a 3 in x 3 in canvas to design on. I started by designing the front and back panels at 3 in square each. I then designed the inside panels at 2.75 in x 2.75 in each.
2. Copy each panel and layout on 8.5" x 11" sized canvas in Elements. Repeat for how many invites you need. I ended up putting all the fronts and back on one piece of paper and all the insides on a seperate piece of paper. (see my print sheet below)

3. Print out using a color printer on to white printer paper.
4. Cut out all the panels using a paper trimmer and set aside trimmed panels.
5. Use the paper trimmer to cut a 3" wide x 12" long piece of cardstock from a 12 x 12 piece.
6. Use the Score Board to score at 3", 6" and 9" along the 12" side. (see pic below)

8. Adhere inside panels on to the folded invite using a tape runner or your favorite adhesive.
9. Before adhereing the front and back panels I adhered a 12 in. piece of pink ribbon using Scotch tape to both panels.

I made sure that the ribbon lined up so that when the invite is closed the two pieces will come together on each side to tie the invite closed. (see pics below)

10. Adhere the front and back panels over the ribbon using tape runner or your favorite heavy duty adhesive. (You don't want the force of tieing and untieing of the ribbon to rip off your decorations.)
11. Tie each side of the invite closed, slip into an envelope and you are set to delivery a party invite that is sure to get your guests excited about their upcoming adventure!

I'm a working mom trying to find the time to be creative and not too crabby. We live in what I call "creative chaos" and have a great time just being a family..............
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